You Don't Deserve This
by Blitz Chick
Summary: Maya wants to go on a quick, easy mission. How bad could it be? With Krieg, it could go either very well, or very, very wrong. Maya/Krieg. Update: Please let me know if this should continue in some form.


It was supposed to be an easy little jaunt. Trek out to Thousand Cuts, take a few stupid pictures for Scooter's impossibly bad poetry, and then fast travel back to Sanctuary. Easy. Maya had volunteered to go alone, except for the fact that when she got to the edge of the city Krieg wouldn't leave her.

She had told him that it was fine, she could go alone. Besides, taking pictures of flowers and robots wasn't exactly Krieg's forte, to put it gently. He had screamed something about meat and shook his buzz axe in the air.

Maya had smiled and simply dropped the matter. If Krieg wanted to come, then that was his choice.

She hadn't anticipated him running off and attacking the first goliath he set eyes on, sparking nothing short of a small war in the bandit camp.

Somehow she'd been separated from Krieg, sprinting down to the no-man's land between the bandit camps and the Hyperion bunker, trying to keep the bullets and buzz axes at bay. However, crouching behind a crumbling slab of concrete, Maya closed her eyes, tattooed arm now streaked with blood.

Of all the ways to go, this was not what she'd pictured. The siren was no medic, but even she knew that she was losing too much blood. There was no way she'd be using her Phaselock, which would be a significant help in thinning the crowds. She even wished that Krieg would come to help.

Breathing heavily, Maya tried to distract herself from the pain. It wasn't that Krieg was a bad person, but there were times she couldn't be sure who – or what – was in charge of that man. She'd never heard him say anything besides the raving madness that psychos usually spouted, but there was some sort of control to the madness. In spite of how insane he could act, Maya had to admit that she'd never seen Krieg turn his insane strength on the other Vault Hunters or the citizens of Sanctuary, just Jack's minions and anything that tried to attack him.

"New friends?!"

Ice blue eyes snapping open, Maya froze. A goliath towered over her, dual guns pointed directly at her. This was it. She inhaled slowly and pressed herself back against the concrete.

It was only as the guns opened up that a shadow fell over Maya, who flinched in spite of herself. When the pain never came, she opened her eyes and let out a small, surprised gasp.

Hunched over her, Krieg's face was only a few inches from her own, the one brown eye she could see staring intently into her own eyes, clear and intense. He twitched as bullets entered his back, but not once did Krieg acknowledge them. Slowly, he reached down and jammed a healing hypo into Maya's arm.

As the serum quickly stopped the bleeding, Krieg sank to his knees, eyes still locked onto Maya, who couldn't help but stare incredulously at him.

"You…don't deserve this." The voice was quiet enough that Maya almost missed it over the chatter of gunfire, but it was unmistakably Krieg. She almost lost the last part as Krieg crumpled.

"I do."

"NO!" Her voice echoed around the empty fields as Maya violently threw the offending goliath into the air, her tattoos alight and her hair fluttering in the wind produced by the force of phaselock. Thankfully it seemed as though this particular goliath had wandered away from where the other bandits were fighting amongst themselves, so it was only a few moments before he was dispatched of.

Practically diving to the ground, Maya heaved Krieg off the ground, gripping him by the shoulders so that she could administer one of the healing hypos that Krieg had stored on his belt. For one heart-stopping moment, Krieg was still, but eventually he picked his head up.

A sigh of relief left Maya's lips, one that she wasn't even aware she was holding. "Thank goodness."

Krieg was silent, tilting his head slightly to the side. In his usual, rough voice, he bellowed "Nipple Salads!"

Laughing, Maya fell forward, her forehead pressed against Krieg's mask. The psycho stiffened, but did not move as Maya let her hands drop from Krieg's shoulders to his forearms, laughter trickling from her lips. "Krieg, don't you ever do that again. You could've died!"

"You don't die today. YOU DIE EVERY DAY!" Growled Krieg, his eye narrowing briefly.

Suddenly, Maya found her heart clenching and her voice lost any bite that she tried to put into it. "I don't care Krieg. No matter what you might think, you don't deserve to die. I don't know who else is in there with you, but the one who saved my life does not deserve to die out here. Because you're too good for that."

For once, there was no answer from Krieg. His muscles trembled and twitched between Maya's touch, as though he were itching to move, but something was holding him back. At last, he spoke, but the voice that emitted from behind the mask was not the same that Maya was used to hearing scream about bicycles made of meat or salting wounds.

"I am…unused to the emotions…I am currently feeling." At the end the control seemed to be slipping, but it was the same soft, thoughtful voice that had claimed to deserve death.

Not trusting herself to move, Maya smiled. "You and me both."

Several long moments passed, it must have been an age to them but in reality it was only a minute, but Maya finally stood, Krieg rising with her. Sheepishly, she grinned. "Well, I guess we should head back and see if Zed can patch us up. Scooter's poetry can wait a bit."

In an attempt to lessen the heavy awkwardness, Maya turned to head back to the fast travel station, but she was jerked to a halt, a massive hand wrapped around her wrist. She turned to look at Krieg, who was staring down at her. He seemed to be wrestling with something before the words came out, menacing, low, and rusty.

"Love…you…"

Maya paused, then smiled. "Yeah. Love you too Krieg."


End file.
